Grupo de Lima cites 100 countries for democracy in Venezuela

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The head of Peruvian diplomacy commented that the Lima Group seeks that "countries like Cuba, China, Russia, Turkey are part of the solution and do not deepen the problem."

 

The Lima Group announced on Wednesday that it invited a hundred countries - including China, Russia, Cuba, Bolivia, Turkey and Uruguay - to discuss on August 6 in Lima on what is the "best way" to recover democracy In Venezuela. Peruvian Foreign Minister Néstor Popolizio said in a conference with the foreign press that the bloc established in April during a meeting in Santiago, Chile, the need to hold an international conference for democracy in Venezuela, which suffers the worst crisis in its history. He indicated that it will be "the first time that all countries that have some connection with what is happening in Venezuela will sit down to dialogue." The head of Peruvian diplomacy commented that the Lima Group seeks that "countries like Cuba, China, Russia, Turkey are part of the solution and do not deepen the problem." "That is the purpose, to dialogue, to converse and establish a credible dialogue, in good faith, that aims for elections to be called in Venezuela," he said. The organization emerged in 2017 and seeks a peaceful and negotiated solution to the Venezuelan crisis. Popolizio indicated that at the end of the international conference it is not intended to "draw a document" due to the very different positions of several invited countries, several of which directly support Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The Peruvian foreign minister stressed that "to avoid the polarization" of the meeting, neither Maduro nor the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó will be invited.

The impact of the migration of Venezuelan citizens in the region and other continents, as well as in requests for humanitarian aid to the international community, will also be discussed at the August meeting. A recent UN report indicates that Venezuelans represent the world's largest group of new asylum seekers due to the crisis the oil country is experiencing. Globally, one out of every five asylum requests made in 2018 was of Venezuelans, which exceeded the requests of Afghans and Syrians. The UN estimates that there are currently four million Venezuelans living abroad, a quarter of whom left since November. Colombia and Peru are the countries that most Venezuelan migrants have received in the world.